FIRST STAGE SHOWS THE GENIUS OF WERNHER VON BRAUN AND HIS DESIGN TEAM.The longest flight program of any Saturn rocket  flown from 1966 to 1975.High fidelity Saturn IB rocket and Apollo spacecraft model made from metal, plastics, and wood. Standing approximately 30 inches tall, displayed on and removable from a 5 ½ inch square beveled edged wood base. Scale is 1:96. The model has five detachable parts  S-IB first stage, S-IVB second stage, Service Module, Command Module, and Launch Escape System. The base of the first stage has eight highly detailed four-color H-1 rocket engines plus eight stabilization fins painted in combinations of black and white. Red decals on a white background vertically spell "UNITED STATES" on four of the eight long cylinder shaped fuel tanks. One tank has a "S-IB" red decal. The top of this stage has an interior clear plastic plate which allows viewing of all 9 tanks (1 center surrounded by 8) with alternating yellow and green painted tops.

The second stage has three white and red ullage motors, used to assist stage separation and to settle rocket fuel propellants during flight. Also at the base of this stage are two black/white/red Auxiliary Propulsion System Module pods that performed attitude control and other functions for the second stage. There are four large sets of red "USA" vertical decals with one that reads "S-IVB / IB." The top black ring is labeled "Instrument Unit." When removed from the first stage, the single silver and red J-2 rocket engine is visible. The Service Module, Command Module, and Launch Escape System all have red identification decals and are all detachable.

Rarely available model of the launch vehicle with a 100 percent success rate which carried the first men of Apollo into earth orbit.

America was shocked into space flight reality when the Soviet Union orbited Sputnik 1 during October 1957. The United States response with a Vanguard rocket two months later resulted in a fireball on the launch pad. Dr. Wernher von Braun and his engineering team gained tremendous credibility when they orbited Explorer 1 in January 1958 using the Jupiter-C, part of the Redstone rocket family. While still working for the U.S. Army, von Braun pushed for the creation of a large booster using a cluster design of exiting rocket stages, which would shorten development time to counter growing Soviet rocket capability. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama was established on the grounds of the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal and officially dedicated by President Dwight Eisenhower in September 1960. MSFC was the lead NASA center for Saturn development and directed by von Braun from 1960 to 1970.

What evolved from von Braun's initial efforts was the first vehicle of the Saturn family, the Saturn I, a stage that clustered eight Redstone fuel tanks around a single and slightly larger diameter Juno (Redstone/Jupiter-C derivative) rocket tank. These tanks fueled eight "H-1" rocket engines which delivered a lift-off thrust of some 1.5 million pounds. The Saturn I had a perfect string of ten successful launches between 1961 and 1965, with the last five carrying "boilerplate" (non-functional) Apollo Command and Service Modules (CSM). President John F. Kennedy's speech the day before the assassination referred that the upcoming fifth Saturn I launch (January 1964) would exceed the Soviet rocket lift capability.

NASA's need to test heavier fully operational Apollo spacecraft prior to any lunar voyage required the development of a more powerful second stage for the Saturn I. This new stage was called the Saturn IV-B (S-IVB) which utilized liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The S-IVB had a newly developed "J-2" rocket engine which produced over 200,000 pounds of thrust. This new combination of stages was called the Saturn IB rocket.

The Saturn IB also had a 100 percent success rate during ten flights, the last six being manned missions. The first and third were unmanned tests of the CSM starting in 1966, with the fourth an unmanned test of the Lunar Module. The second flight was an extensive test of the S-IVB stage. During October 1968, the Saturn IB carried Apollo 7 into earth orbit, the first manned Apollo flight testing the CSM for some 11 days, commanded by Wally Schirra, one of the seven Mercury Astronauts. During 1973, three Saturn IB's carried three different crews and CSM's to a rendezvous with the Skylab Space Station. With an ironic ending from its Space Race roots, the IB launched the final manned Apollo CSM to an orbital rendezvous and docking (ASTP) with a Soviet manned Soyuz spacecraft during July 1975. And fittingly, Mercury Astronaut Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, grounded since 1962 due to a heart murmur, finally made it into space serving as Docking Module Pilot during that 1975 ASTP flight.

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